


We Woof You A Merry Christmas

by BadHidingSpot



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, M/M, Sad, puppy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 09:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5534363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadHidingSpot/pseuds/BadHidingSpot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from steamcurious: Something with a Christmas puppy</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Woof You A Merry Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [steamcurious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/steamcurious/gifts).



> Actually kind of destroyed me while I was writing it. Sad. But a happy ending! Also unedited so apologies.

Or The One With A Christmas Puppy  
Melissa did come around later to thinking that it was a good idea but it had been very touch and go for the first few hours Scott brought the little guy home. She went through all the usual bullet points:  
-There was barely enough food in the house to feed the humans.  
-She did not have time to take care of a puppy and two growing teenage werewolves.  
-It would make leaving town for vacations more difficult.  
-It might make a mess of the house.  
These Scott was well prepared to counter and even add in a few of his own points:  
-He could pay for the food with a discount from the vet.  
-He and Isaac would definitely take care of it and the second Melissa found herself taking on any responsibility for the dog he would be out of the house. No pouting.  
-They hardly ever left town for vacation anyway.  
-Scott would clean up any mess it made and besides, usually the house was trashed from the supernatural anyway.  
But the biggest point of all, the thing that he believed sold Melissa on the idea, was that Isaac really needed a puppy. Needed in the way that all children need unconditional love. Needed it in the way Scott needed and had his mother but Isaac had never really had his. Needed in the way it was okay to get from an animal but strange to receive from the woman whose house you were living in.  
Melissa’s eyes had softened and her heart had maybe broken a little bit but in the end she saw that it was true.  
There was quite the ruckus as Scott literally tried to wrap the puppy until Melissa came upstairs and insisted he just put a bow on it instead and give the poor creature some relief. Scott wasn’t too happy with this but he forgot about presentation once Isaac saw the dog. He had been picking up wrapping paper from the floor and stuffing it into a garbage bag when Scott brought that final gift out wiggling and howling happily in his arms.  
“For me? Seriously?” Isaac chocked reaching out as if to take the puppy but not doing so; like he felt that he wasn’t allowed to hold it. To combat this, intentionally or no, Scott forced the puppy into Isaac’s hands and he moved, like a natural care taker, to support its legs and kiss its face.  
“It’s a pit bull I think,” Melissa said to Sheriff over the phone, “a mutt but most a pit bull.”  
“Those used to be nanny dogs,” Sheriff said, “because they were so gentle with children.”  
“I think Scott had visions of it growing up to be put in one of those awful fighting rings.” Melissa winced at the idea.  
“Oh yeah. I saw that piece on Sixty Minutes. I can’t believe the inhumanity of some people.”  
She leaned against the wall, her body tethered to it by her out-of-date cord phone. “Are there any rings like that here? In Beacon Hills?”  
“We broke up one on the outskirts a few years back,” Sheriff said sadly, “but that’s just the thing about these. They take place out in the boonies where we can’t find them unless they’re reported.”  
“And let me guess,” Melissa sighed, “no on reports that kind of thing.”  
“Bingo. Not unless some guy loses money.” Sheriff scoffed as if disgusted. “Imagine that? That what would upset you enough to call the police would be your gambling problem.”  
“I hate to think about it,” Melissa picked at the spot in the wall where Scott’s height was measured every year. Age twelve when he had finally reached her height and she was a little teary at how much he’d grown. He wasn’t a little boy anymore. “It’s not true is it?” She asked softly. “That they can grow up to vicious?”  
“Dogs are like kids, Mel,” he said kindly, “they grow up the way you raise them.” Melissa agreed with while quietly nodding her head and wondering if Isaac’s parents had measured his height on the wall. Maybe it wasn’t measured in pen but in how high his father threw the bottle at him. Melissa felt sick thinking about Isaac trying to make himself into a smaller target.

“I taught her tricks!” Isaac bragged holding a bag of treats next to Stella while she shifted anxiously waiting for him to drop the bag. She had only been living with them a week but, Melissa had to admit, she was adoringly obedient to Isaac.  
“Yeah? Let’s see,” Melissa invited grinning.  
“Stella, Stella,” Isaac said his voice getting firm. The dog sat at attention. Isaac took out a treat. “Up,” He commanded and Stella got onto her hind legs and danced on them until Isaac said, “Good girl!” and she took that as a symbol to come down. Melissa clapped in glee and Isaac blushed. “That’s really the only one,” he admitted, “she’s kind of got ‘sit’.” Stella sat and Melissa laughed again. “That doesn’t count, Stella.”  
Scott came into the back yard, asking what all the fuss was about when Stella’s demeanor totally changed and she took attack position, haunches raised, and snarled at Scott. Scott put his hands up and Melissa remembered wheeling Scott into the emergency room, her baby crying “Where’s Roscoe, Mommy? Where’s Roscoe?” his arm bleeding too heavily.  
“Cut it out, Stella,” Isaac said all too easily and scooped the puppy up holding her to his chest. She licked his face. Scott only smiled, too trusting to see the danger in anything, and asked what they should do for dinner.  
But Melissa could not forget. She couldn’t forget wringing her hands in the waiting room her phone ringing and ringing to Raphael and never answering.

Calling John only seemed natural after that. “He was just so little then. I don’t think I ever even told him we had to have the dog put down,” She confessed. “The thing was just too big for him anyway. I knew it was. I told Raphael it was. But he insisted.” And then he wasn’t around for the aftermath. As usual. She found it too petty, for some reason, to say this part to John but he seemed to understand it was implied.  
“I think I remember that dog,” John said, “he was a big old thing.”  
“Rottwieler,” Melissa said peering into the living room secretly where Isaac and Stella lay on the sofa together napping.  
“He was full grown though when you got him, wasn’t he?”  
Melissa nodded but then remembered that she was on the phone and said, “Yes. Raphael’s cousin gave him too us.”  
“Well there you go, see? That dog had already been raised to do bad things. He didn’t understand kids. Had probably never seen a kid before in his life.” Melissa agreed remembering certain habits of that cousin-in-law that she detested. Too rough with Scott. Too judgemental about Scott’s toughness. Too critical of how Melissa babied him and often times too drunk to answer the door.  
“You’re right,” She sighed, “I know you’re right. And I’m not saying that its evil or anything. Of course it’s not. But what if it’s something,” she trailed off. John didn’t prompt her. John waited. He always waited. “What if it is like Roscoe? It’s already been raised to bite before bitten?”  
“Maybe it was an alpha thing?” John suggested after a long moment. “Maybe she was just trying to figure out who the alpha was.”

She wanted to be comforted by that but she was still unsettled for the next week. Stella was jumping up and howling for food or to be let out, Melissa wasn’t sure, but she was late for work and she didn’t have time for it. She opened the back door and let the dog out then sent a text to Scott to let her back in when he woke up. Since it was really only a matter of her opening a door she decided not to mention that this technically broke the rules established between herself and Scott.  
She got a call at work that was terrifying and familiar: Scott sobbing over the phone to her saying some dog’s name over and over again.  
“Baby what is it? Did she attack you?” With no cord to anxiously cling at she gripped her ID badge.  
“No,” Scott sobbed, “Stella got out. We can’t find her.”  
“What?”  
“We can’t sniff her out. It’s too cold or something. The ground is too wet. The scent keeps getting lost.”  
“I’ll be right there, honey. Just call Animal Control so they have her description.”  
“Mom that’s not all,” Melissa’s breath caught in her throat, “Isaac went after her and he’s gone too.”

She called John on her way and he was there in minutes in the police car. Scott had left in Stiles’ jeep already to do a full search although it was unclear which lost pup they were looking for. Sheriff let her ride up front so that they could get any reports on the scanner that came in about a boy or a dog.  
“We’ll find him, Melissa,” John assured her. She put her face in her hands.  
“It’s my fault,” She said holding her tears back, “he loves Scott so much. This is my fault.”  
“Come on now, Melissa. You didn’t know the gate was open.”  
“I should have checked.”  
“It was a mistake. Anyone could have made it.”  
“What if I did it on purpose, John?” She looked up at him, her eyes shining, “What if I tried to get rid of it because I was afraid?”  
Sheriff put his left hand at 12 o’clock on the steering wheel and with his right held hers tightly. “There’s nothing wrong with a parent being afraid.”  
Somehow it gave her a small sense of peace. A few miles later she saw the outline of a curly haired boy walking up the road, jacket on, and scarf wrapped around something small. Melissa called for John to stop the car but she was out of it and running down the street to Isaac before it had come to a full stop.  
“Isaac!” She cried out in both joy and relief. He looked back at her, glared, and kept walking. This stung her but she somewhat expected it. The punishment of a child who is mad at his mother. She caught up to him. “You found Stella! We’ve been so worried about her.”  
“Have you?” Isaac scoffed.  
“We’ve been looking everywhere. Where did you find her?”  
“She was in the street.”  
“Oh god is she hurt?” Melissa reached to try and check the puppy but Isaac pulled away.  
“She’s not. Like you care.”  
“Isaac, honey, don’t say that. I’m sorry I didn’t check the gate but-”  
“Shut up!” He shouted stopping and turning to her. Out of the corner of her eye Melissa saw John tense and pause waiting to see if he would need to intervene or not. “You think I don’t know?”  
“Don’t know what?”  
“You hate us,” Isaac began to cry and he tried to cover it in shame. Melissa, on instinct, reached forward to pull his hand away, to tell him she could see him cry. It was okay if he cried. She wouldn’t beat him or berate him for it. To cry was to be vulnerable and mothers were especially good with vulnerability. But Isaac moved away from her touch again. Too many times of being hit and kicked for crying had taught him not to trust anyone’s touch. “You’re scared we’re going to do something. Something terrible. You’re scared she’s going to hurt Scott.”  
Melissa could not deny it. And then, “You’re scared that I’m going to hurt Scott.”  
“Accidents happen Isaac.” She wasn’t sure if she was excusing herself again for letting Stella out or trying to explain her fear. But Isaac had landed on it.  
“You’re right anyway,” Isaac sobbed, “Stella wouldn’t. I know she wouldn’t. But I might. I have before. I could really hurt him.” He swallowed. “I love him.”  
“I know.”  
“My dad, he loved my mom. He said it all the time but it was more than that. You could see it when he wasn’t-” he stumbled in his words, “when he wasn’t mad, you know? But he still hurt her. And he loved me and Cam but he still hurt us too. And Scott’s dad, I know about that night on the stairs.” Melissa winced. “Scott’s dad loves him but sometimes, if you’re a bad dog, you just bite.” He wiped his sleeve on his face to get rid of the hot tears forming into iceciles. “So I’ll just make it easy. I’ll go.”  
“No,” Melissa shouted and she was not surprised that she was crying now too, “please don’t go. I don’t want you to go.”  
“But you’re scared of me.”  
“I am,” She admitted, “you’re a very hurt boy, Isaac. Someone has shown you a lot of hurt and I,” she gulped, “I want to change that. I’m scared that I can’t. I’m scared it’s too late to show you that-that you don’t have to-” She was choked down by her own sobs. Isaac moved in on automatic and hugged her. “You don’t have to,” She sobbed, “you don’t have to, Isaac. You don’t have to.”  
Stella licked at her tears and Isaac embraced her as close as he could without squishing the puppy between them. John let them ride in the back together. Melissa stroked the boy’s hair while he slept, his head on her shoulder.

Scott would not let them out of his sight when they came back. John, just for good measure, put an extra lock on the gate and Melissa hung a sticky note on the back door that said “Is the gate shut?”. Stiles and John ordered a pizza and rented a movie on the way back from picking it up. Melissa didn't understand the plot much, she and John frequently had the movie paused to ask questions (who is that bad guy? Is he working with the other bad guy? Is she the same blonde woman from the beginning? What was she in? Was she in that Glee show? Was that Jeff Bridge? It looked like him. Whatever happened to him? Does he still do work? Is he alive?), but she felt that she had never been happier on her couch sandwiched in a cuddle puddle between her two sons.


End file.
